Human Resources Committee on Dec. 7th, 2017

[Colleen Mooney]

I can talk about what we have available at the Boys and Girls Club. We have homework clubs. That's probably our primary program across the country. We also have Raise the Grade, which is a really great program. It's a one-on-one mentorship program where we match a student. You can start in grade 8 and go up to grade 12 in Ontario, or whatever your last grade is. Basically, your mentor will help you figure out what you want to do. If you want to be a pharmacist, for example, you would find out what courses you have to take in high school and what would be the path. They look at college versus university.

For a lot of the kids who come to the Boys and Girls Club nobody in their family has gone on to post-secondary education. They don't really know what's available out there and how much it's going to cost. That's the other piece that's really important to consider, that financial literacy piece. Kids need to know what those costs are because we don't want kids graduating with tens of thousands of dollars of debt. That's something we're also focusing on.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Excellent.

Ruth and Orville, you're dealing with a very special and unique group of children and youth that we need to look at. Are there any barriers that the federal or provincial government are putting up for the youth that we should be aware of? Are there any of those challenges, or is a lot of it more with the domestic...within the community? Are we as a government causing any barriers for them as well?

[Orville Lee]

Well I'm not sure if this is a useful answer, but the program length is very, very short, and we're trying to deal with issues that need more time to deal with. I would think that, in a way, inhibits progress in many instances for us.

[Ruth Lee]

I think that the government needs to recognize mentorship as a key component to the success of their growth. It's not a tangible number that you can indicate at the end of a program, it's just the planting of a seed.

We used to have in-house counsellors when we initially started, and the federal government was very open to that. However, as time progressed and money was getting tight, those things were pulled. Our programs used to last six months. Now they last 17 weeks. Those are a set-up for failures.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Who is that funded by? Is it provincial or federal?

[Ruth Lee]

It's federal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

Now over to MP Robillard, please.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon.

My questions go to you, Mr. Tremblay.

In your opening remarks, you said that more than 1,000 employers all around the world trust the Université de Sherbrooke and its student clientele to carry out major projects and prepare the next generation.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by “employers all around the world”? Could you give us examples of international employers who participate in your internship and placement services?

How did they come to do business with you?

[Alain Tremblay]

I could talk about Microsoft, Tesla, Yahoo and a number of companies from Silicon Valley. The students are often the ones who approach the employers. Students who have good results will be invited to apply. They will then be able to do an internship.

About 6% of our students do internships outside Canada, and some of them may end up at Bosch or other German companies. For example, this year, some people ended up at BMW, Bosch and various groups like that.

In Sherbrooke, the language imposes a limit, even though the majority of our students are bilingual. The situation is not the same as at the University of Waterloo, where about 25% of internships are outside Canada. They are talking about 600 internships a year, whether in China, Hong Kong or elsewhere. They have the networks they need to do that.

In Sherbrooke, we are a little timid about that. Often, the students are the ones knocking on the doors of the world's major companies. When one of our students does well, they become an ambassador. Those big companies will then offer us internships that we will be able to suggest to our students.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Could you tell us more about the support you provide to your students who are starting an internship?

[Alain Tremblay]

Essentially, there's a meeting for students before they start their internships. We want to make sure they have the right attitude, among other things. In the first internship, we systematically visit all the students.

During the second, third, fourth and fifth internships, our focus is more on the needs. After the internship, there is a meeting with the students, highlighting the skills they have acquired, in order to improve their resumés and prepare for other internships.

That's the gist of the co-op program in terms of accreditation. To be accredited, to receive Canadian co-op accreditation, we must provide those services before, during and after the internship.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

That's excellent.

In terms of the tools available to young people and how our institutions prepare them for the job market, how does Quebec fare? What is the main challenge you are seeing and what solution are you proposing?

[Alain Tremblay]

In my previous career, at the Université de Sherbrooke's School of Management, we had programs in Europe, Africa and Latin America. I can say that Canadian universities in general, and Quebec universities in particular, rank extremely well internationally. We have a good reputation. We are very practical. The teaching is practical. If we compare ourselves to French universities, which are very theoretical, we are extremely practical. That's why we rank well. It is something we must maintain.

We must ensure that we have programs to help companies hire students. Quebec has a tax credit that can reach up to 40% of the salary. Through the federal government's student work-integrated learning program, a $5,000 grant is available to employers. The grant may be in addition to the provincial tax credit. In that sense, I think we need to help the next generation by enabling businesses to access programs promoting the hiring of our students.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Okay, thank you.

I will be sharing the rest of my time with Mr. Morrissey.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Thank you, Chair.

My question and comment is for Ms. Mooney. Part of your question was regarding how you entice private sector employers to take advantage of some of the programs you're doing. I was a private sector employer who took youth, especially disadvantaged youth, and on a few occasions after I agreed to it, I wondered what did I get myself into.

That is a big pool that is underutilized. In order to utilize it, the organization has to walk in line with the private sector, providing more support for the employer to get through the unknown. Could you comment on that?

[Colleen Mooney]

I think you're 100% right. That is something we have been spending a lot of time looking into at the Boys and Girls Club. For example, in Ottawa, we've convened something we call the leadership round table, where we've invited everybody who does leadership training—the City of Ottawa and many other non-profits—to participate. We're looking for best practices, training in social skills, and we're trying to work toward having a consistent leadership certificate in the city of Ottawa, so that if you go to an employer with your certificate, the employer knows it means x, y, and z, and that you will have had lots of training in those different areas.

I think there is a piece around training and support ongoing. I really liked what Mr. Tremblay said about how they visit people when they're in their stage. That's a really great way of doing that, as well. That's why we love the skills link program so much, because it allows us to work hand in hand with the private sector employers and have more of a joint training initiative.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you. We'll come back to you afterward, Bob.

Next we are going to MP Wong for five minutes.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses from different parts of the nation. I have questions for almost every one of you.

First of all, Mr. Tremblay, I worked very closely with the Université de Sherbrooke when I was the minister for seniors, and we will make sure that your university gets all the funding and that Quebec gets all the funding they deserve.

Going back to some of the issues you brought forward, I have two things: first of all, language, so French as a second language or English as a second language; and second, the combination of skills and the language. When I was working for Vancouver Community College and Kwantlen Polytechnic University, we also had what we call combined skills. In your case it's French, and in B.C. it is English as a second language combined with skills. It's a very successful program. There's another program where we provide our university students with a very good experience overseas. It's the student mobility project. I was heading that project when I was at Kwantlen.

Do you think these two areas would help your students? Would they give youth better opportunities to succeed in the workplace?

[Alain Tremblay]

Of course, language is a major issue. At the moment, because of Quebec's Charter of the French Language, universities are required to provide French-language instruction first. However, there are opportunities for teaching in English as a second language. The university's School of Management now has a so-called “bilingual“ program, in which one-third of courses are delivered in English and two-thirds in French. It's allowed. Given the openness to the world, we have no choice but to start operating like that.

Furthermore, we have also started offering double degrees, which is new. It is possible, for example, to obtain a degree with a major in economics and a minor in taxation. We are starting to do this more and more. We also have an MBA/Law program, which allows students to earn a law degree and, towards the end of their courses, they continue the law degree by adding a course in administration. We have this for law and life sciences. Students study law, then they complete a master's degree in life sciences, so that they can represent pharmaceutical companies, among others. We are increasingly working on double degrees.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you.

My next question is for Ms. Mooney from the Boys and Girls Club. There's one thing I'm specifically interested in, and that is the number of weeks for the summer student program.

For the past nine years, that's been a very good program for my riding of Richmond Centre, but both the employers and the students who reported back to me said the number of weeks has been cut in half. You mentioned that, now for university students, it is no longer 16 weeks, but eight weeks. For both the employer and the employee, do you think that length should be kept at 16 weeks for university students?

[Colleen Mooney]

Yes, I would love to see it go back to 16 weeks, because, as I said before, they're not getting a great work experience in eight weeks. That's one of the things, and 16 weeks allows many students to see different parts of the workplace, not just one. The other thing is that tuition is just so expensive these days, especially for the kids we see at the Boys and Girls Club, that they have to be working the 16 weeks. Often what happens, what we see, is that a great student who we would love to hire says, “No, thank you” to us, and ends up working somewhere else, such as in fast food or something, just because they can be guaranteed the 16 weeks.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

My next question is open to all of you.

We mention a lot of times that employers are very important, the private sector, and in the past, we used to have an employee panel for people who would like to hire youth with challenges, and not just youth, adults as well. The main reason for that panel is to ensure that they see this as very beneficial to hire young adults who are physically or mentally challenged, because they are very faithful workers. They are punctual, and they are a very good add-on.

Again, when I was the minister for seniors, we used that model to employ a panel for family caregivers so that family caregivers also would be able to be supported by employers.

Can any one of you shine a light on the need for employer panels to get private sector support?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

We're out of time, but I'll allow for a very brief answer.

[Ruth Lee]

I think it would be good to give us a perspective of the expectation that they're looking for. For us, really quickly, we do walk with the employers, we go visit. We presented that the probation period is like try before you buy.

We have a wage subsidy program where we add on $6 an hour to the employer, and we tell them that we will be the mediator between the two as the individual grows in their company.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

Now over to MP Sansoucy for three minutes, please.